Sarang, Varada-Sampada enter State badminton final

The dream run of Sarang Lakhanee continued in the first Maharashtra Senior State Selection Badminton tournament at Chembur Gymkhana, Mumbai, on Friday.

| TNN | Jul 26, 2014, 05.57 AM IST

NAGPUR: The dream run of Sarang Lakhanee continued in the first Maharashtra Senior State Selection Badminton tournament at Chembur Gymkhana, Mumbai, on Friday.

The 22-year-old city shuttler marked his comeback to the competitive tournament in a big way by storming into the men's singles final. Unseeded Lakhanee rallied back splendidly to edge out Sushrut Karmarkar of Mumbai Suburban in an exciting semifinal.

Unseeded Lakhanee lost the first game narrowly but bounced back in spectacular fashion to win the hour-long battle 19-21, 21-12, 21-19. Both Lakhanee and Karmarkar, a trainee of Uday Pawar, fought hard for each point in the deciding third game.

However, Lakhanee, who got a walkover from seventh seed Siddharth Thakur of Nashik in the quarterfinal earlier in the day, raised his level of game at the right time to oust Mumbai teenager.

In the final on Saturday, Lakhanee, a trainee of Pullela Gopichand Academy, will square off against top seed Subhankar Dey of Pune. Reigning Bahrain Open champion Dey thumped third seed Nigel D'Sa of Greater Mumbai 21-15, 21-14 in the other semis.

Second seeded pair of Nagpur's Varada Dixit and Sampada Sahasrabudhe of Pune also entered the women's doubles final. They will meet top seeds Manasi Gadgil and Mudra Dhainje of Pune for the crown.

Vaishnavi Bhale lost to top seed Neha Pandit in the women's singles semifinal.

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